Seeking to counter what he termed the "excessive" media coverage given to his opponent, presidential hopeful John McCain unveiled a new campaign ad intended to inform his supporters of his whereabouts.

Philip Maddocks

Seeking to counter what he termed the "excessive" media coverage given to his opponent, presidential hopeful John McCain unveiled a new campaign ad intended to inform his supporters of his whereabouts.

The ad opens up with imagery including McCain holding up a newspaper with a July 2008 date, designed to let viewers know that he is still campaigning even though he has all but vanished from the public eye.

"The surge and John McCain are still working, A campaign not in crisis," the narrator announces. And it also highlights Mr. McCain’s "deep and thorough knowledge" of what it is like to be ignored by a fickle media, an experience that his opponent is sorely lacking in, a point the McCain campaign hopes to exploit should the press ever stop fawning over his opponent in the presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama.

In the 30-second spot, McCain suggests that he will be at a Washington, D.C., Finance Session on July 31, a Nevada Finance Session on July 29, and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis on Sept. 1-4 - "In case anybody cares."

In the voiceover, the ad’s narrator allows that lack of interest in Mr. McCain, even among his own supporters, is a concern, but, "John McCain says solve it now.

"But Barack Obama? He says no when asked if he is interested in John McCain."

Even as Mr. McCain struggled mightily for acknowledgement of his existence, he seemed to be losing ground.

A longtime observer of political campaigns who teaches a course in media relations for presidential candidates at UCLA, said he hadn’t seen the latest McCain commercial and really had no desire to watch it.

"I’ve gone almost a month without seeing Mr. McCain and it has changed my life for the better," he said, "I’ve found that now that I have stopped paying attention to him, I have a lot more time for other things I want to do, like watching Barack Obama shoot three-pointers while overseas."

"There’s a real Cartesian existential choice in this election between whether the public and the media think of McCain and therefore he is, or they don’t, and he isn’t," said a spokesman for the Obama campaign. "We have made our choice, and we think the public and media have made theirs."

McCain didn’t seem ready to give up on his existence yet. In a guest column sent to and discarded by all the major news organizations, Mr. McCain said he was committed to having his persona recognized, even if it meant running a series of unpopular, unviewed ads detailing his mundane itinerary.

The new McCain commercial began broadcasting this week in all the major Republican voting markets in the U.S., as well as Canada and Mexico, where McCain said there is likely more interest in his comings and goings than in America.

"This is something I probably should have done long ago, but I was too focused on trying to figure out where I stood on economic issues and not focused enough on everyone else’s infatuation with my opponent," he said.

The launch of Mr. McCain’s new ad coincides with the beginning of "Existence First" tour this week.

The Republican candidate said he expected to take new steps to increase media attention on his campaign once his team of advisors see the new commercials and learn where he is.

"We want to avoid fiascoes like this weekend’s appearance at Yankee Stadium where I show up for the game and don’t even get to throw out the first pitch," he said. "If that had been my opponent, they would have had him penciled him in to pitch three innings and then inducted him into the Baseball Hall of Fame afterward."

McCain said he understood the interest stimulated by Mr. Obama’s first visit overseas since becoming the party’s presumptive nominee.

"That’s fair enough," he said. "I just hope the media shows the same level of interest when I make my first trip to a computer store. It’s going to be any day now."

Mr. McCain said he doesn’t blame his supporters or campaign workers or even the media for not paying attention to him.

"Even I sometimes lose interest in myself," the candidate confessed.

He did, however, suggest that Senator Obama bears some of the responsibility for Mr. McCain’s virtual disappearance from news reports.

"He doesn’t have to allow all those people at his rallies. He doesn’t have to allow all those star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines to cover his first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. And he doesn’t have to plan a "Meet the Press" interview. But he is." McCain said during a phone interview he offered while driving the currently unmanned "Straight Talk Express" bus across what he was "pretty sure" were the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where he thought he was supposed to meet with Republican vice presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

Some political observers suggested McCain might be better off ditching his largely ignored ground campaign aboard the Straight Talk Express and seeking an invitation to ride on the Obama campaign plane

"No, he won’t look presidential. Yes, he will appear desperate. But if that’s the worse that happens, it will be an improvement," said one longtime campaign consultant.

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddock@cnc.com.

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